Monday, December 19, 2005

outrageous!

Asha Bhosle's "surprise gift" to the late great RDB on his death anniversary (Jan 04) smacks of so much undeniable greed. Exploitation at its purest.

"It's an album entitled Real RD. It features 21 of R D Burman's choicest numbers -- mostly rendered by Ashaji, with a few duets where Sudesh Bhosle will accompany her," reveals a source from Sa Re Ga Ma, the music company that owns the copyrights for most of Asha Bhosle's and RD's movie soundtracks. ...What makes Real RD really special is that Asha will be re-interpreting the tracks, rendering the songs all over again to suit the techno-advancements in the new millennium.

Real RD eh? That's like releasing aajaa aajaa mai.n huu.N pyaar teraa on a compilation CD titled Rare gems of R D Burman. SaReGaMa's in it for the money and nothing else. After all, when you own the copyrights for most of Asha Bhosle's and RD's movie soundtracks (Rocky seems to have been part of the stuff they bought/licensed from Polygram/MIL/Universal), why wouldn't you just remaster 'em and release 'em (you do have a marketing division to sell all this don't you?) instead of milking the stuff to create maudlin tired soulless floor thumpers.